DeathCrawl ‘Accelerated Rate Of Decay’ CD/DD 2012

DeathCrawl 'Accelerated Rate Of Decay'Having scored a favourable Blabbermouth review back in 2009 for the debut release of their self produced ‘The End Is Not Near Enough’, North East Ohio underground misanthropes DeathCrawl have been steadily releasing hate filled slabs of Sludge influenced Doom with gleeful malice that celebrates the art of the DIY release.

The project was conceived in 2008 by BigMetal Dave Johnson (currently handling bass duties in thrash band Souless) and Jason Luchka. After many evolving line ups the two settled on Johnson on drums, Luchka on bass and the recruitment of Damon Gregg on guitar. In an unusual twist it was decided that all three would handle the vocal attack giving Deathcrawl a unique sound which has diversity and bolsters a sound that is a stark reminder to bands just how downright nasty the genre can sound. ‘Accelerated Rate of Decay’ is eight tracks of sonic brutality that seeks to batter your very soul with its nihilism and drown you under a wave of apocalyptic reckoning.

It should come as no surprise that the album is a distorted wall of sound that conjures up comparisons with New Orleans dirt merchants EyeHateGod at their most angry and junk influenced; this is a grimy trip through themes of the end times we have wrought upon ourselves through greed, selfishness and lust for destruction and power. In short it is not an album for the faint hearted or easily offended. If you like your music drenched with sunshine and feel good motifs then run screaming now because DeathCrawl’s sludge barrage is here to shatter your cosy little world.

To be fair to the band they are fairly diverse for the type of music they clearly reveal in and ‘Accelerated Rate…’ manages to pack in an arsenal of punches which incorporates rumbling bass, dense drumming, spooky atmospheres and dirge like doom, as well as the blackest sludge. The triple vocal attack lends itself to creating the sense of an end time chorus especially when the band go full tilt into a bezerker charge and the musicians can over lap and play off each other. I imagine this is a particular bonus in the live arena.

The one track that stood out as encapsulating this release was almost half way point ‘Disturbing the Earth’. Here multi-layered and mournful chanting gives way to strangled vocal screams and huge relentless riffing that has an urgency and menace despite its plodding funeral march tempo. It is almost like a funeral procession for society, with great ominous walls of sound like the beast slouching towards Bethlehem on the eve of the rapture. At times it is just frightening.

DeathCrawl have produced another solid audio nasty that claws and scrapes its way into the subconscious, hateful and hissing. It is a good example of what this corner of the scene has to offer and worthy of a listen if you’re like me are and counting down until the next Eyehategod release. They are not pushing the genre in any particularly forward motion, but if these are the end times, they are revealing in it.

Label: Self Released
Website: www.deathcrawl.com

Scribed by: Mark Hunt-Bryden